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Saturday, January 24, 2015

The "Wall of Names" & other race expo excitement!!!

The day before my races are always filled with a bunch of activity (mainly involving packet pick up at the expo...and food). Today was no exception. I woke up early this morning so that I could get to the expo early and avoid the crowds. Today's session started at 10am...

I got there at 9:58am and sure enough there was a long line to get in the doors, but thankfully it moved very quickly...

and I was at the front in only 7 minutes...

The first thing I did was check out the "Wall of Names"...

I think it's so cool that they thought of this. I'm not sure if they always do this (since this is my first year) but it's a really nice way to feel like you are a part of a big community of runners. Here I am...

And a map of the countries represented...

Then I got my packet & bib...

(I'm running for home tomorrow)

I've already looked at the route a bunch so I didn't spend too much time examining the map they posted (plus they have it online so if I need to I can check it out that way) but I did take a quick picture...

I stopped by one or two booths but mostly just looked around. I didn't take as many pictures as I initially planned to but here are a few from the front of the expo...

I saw one of the members of my running group and a few other people I know (vendors, visitors, participants) as I walked around. And then I stopped by the Lifetime booth and completed a survey for the sole purpose of being able to get this Britto poster...

I also got to see the 10th anniversary medal for the 2015 Sarasota 1/2 marathon!!!

(This will be mine (along with my category 5 medal) on March 15th!!)

I found my way to the Corral map to see where I would be stationed. Since I signed up for Miami in September last year I had to use my finish time from the Chicago 1/2 marathon for my pace confirmation. That placed me in corral H...

I'm not that concerned about my corral assignment because I have no time goal for tomorrow. I don't even want the pressure of a time goal. Tomorrow my focus will be on maintaining my planned intervals for the duration of the race.

I can already tell that tomorrow morning is going to be hectic between trying to find parking, doing the gear check, finding the corrals and lining up. So I will definitely have an early bed time. I normally have a hard time sleeping the night before a race because I'm usually so nervous. But I'm not that nervous today...just really excited so hopefully sleep won't be an issue.

The next time you hear from me I will officially be #MiamiFamous with two new pieces of race bling!!!